NPR: An important distinction: We’re not looking for everyone’s favorite albums or songs, but rather ones that had some sort of historical significance. These are the game-changers — ones that signaled some sort of shift in music, or ones that were particularly influential in some way. We’re looking for the albums and singles people will still buy, share, listen to and talk about for years or decades to come.” NPR: The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings is the plain, unadorned, list. You can see a written discussion of the list here. They take pains to say that these are “important”…

Friday to Sunday October 23 to 25 125 West 18th NYC All the details are here: WFMU Record + CD Fair Includes dealer list and .pdf of the table placements. Poopsters Zip and Greak will be at there own tables selling (and, no doubt, buying). Others are sure to want to join them.

Wayne&Wax has several posts and discussions jumping off from this post: Mobile Music & Treble Culture. With the proliferation of bad sound on iPods and phones, can we see a march towards treble in the way we consume music? Here are parts twoand three of the string. It’s an interesting exercise, thinking about the ways in which the physicality (or lack of it) of how we listen to sound sound affect the way we hear it. Or should that be the other way around?

Simon Reynolds in The Guardian on the development of synth pop (in the UK in particular) Takes in quite a bit for a mainstream pub: One nation under a Moog | Music | The Guardian (Reynolds often publishes the uncut version on his site later.

Not content with having critical success, these attention seeking songsmiths have finally been given the ultimate accolade, having a major civil engineering project named after them: New Brisbane bridge named after Go-Betweens

This weeks NYT Popcast has a fascinating discussion between Ben Sisario and one of my favorite writers, Nik Cohn. Really good insights into how the times influenced Cohn’s review in The Times back in ’68. I found myself nodding in agreement and saying “Yes! You put your finger on it!” The White Album, Heard in 1968 and Pronounced Boring. And Now? PS: You’ve heard the term “He’s got a face fit for radio”? Well, Jon Pareles has a voice fit for the newspaper. Someone really needs to help him with microphone / headphone technique and perhaps give him a nice expectorant……

He died this morning, apparently of a heart attack. A true hip hop pioneer, one whose show, “Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack“, I listened to religiously whenever I was close to the signal (and sometimes when I wasn’t). Somewhere in the stacks I have a beat up cassette tape of one of his mixes (this is not it, but it’s close) from 83 or 84. Just the damn coolest. You see, kids, many years ago we were not able to listen to everything all the time from everywhere ‘cos we didn’t have no intarwebs. Just the “World’s Best Lookin’ Sound” (WBLS) (who have…

Perfect record for a soggy and gray day spent fiddling with records. Their LP from last year was pretty good drum n bass, but nothing could have prepared us for this. I first heard it back in April and it’s been growing on me ever since. Once again, turn up the bass if you can. (Available on the B-side of the new single “Against All Odds”)

Devin Coldewey over at Tech Crunch has a report on an Audio researcher’s “Fidelity Potential Index”, which pits mp3 against vinyl; science or pseudoscience?. The original report is here: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Magazine/manufacture/0909/, it includes many caveats…

Prince Zimboo “Love Diareha” – A fun, funny track with a great groove. This deserves to be huge. It wasn’t on YouTube yet so I cobbled something together and put it up. Zimboo first came to our attention with his contribution to the Major Lazer record earlier this year. Despite the brevity of the track, it was obvious that the Prince was onto something… Then I heard Toddla T play “Love Diareha” on the “In New DJs We Trust” show on BBC Radio1 at the end of August. It was just soooo different from everything else that I tortured my…

A long-standing PoOPster, Mike J, is curating/putting together/hyping/ slaving over a series of interesting looking shows at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon NY. We’ll push an update closer to each of the shows, but here are the details in case you wanna get a jump. Seating is limited, so it might be a good idea… The Howland Cultural Center is at 477 Main Street, Beacon NY 12508 914-474-7758 http://www.howlandculturalcenter.org Prices vary by show, but seating is always limited. Tickets for The Howland Cultural Center are here Saturday, August 22, 8pm Marilyn Crispell, Solo Piano Only 2009 HV appearence $25.00…